SUV hits tire off pickup

[Steve welder]

We were traveling north on I95 in the middle lane doing around 65 when my wife yelled watch out
There was a tire on a rim barreling towards us going very fast. It was split seconds and all I could do is hang on to the wheel and hope I could avoid it
The tire was bouncing and it took a bounce and came over the hood of the car and struck the passenger side front window pillar
The widow exploded and interior trim flew off, after the tire hit the car it must have went into orbit
I got the car to the shoulder, called the police. I walked down the highway a ways and saw a SUV up against the divider in the south bound lane and a woman driver holding her head, I could not get to her as there was to much traffic and cars going to fast
The troopers later on told me her drivers side tire came off. We were extremely lucky as if that tire hit us head on both of us could have been killed

 

[RustyRatRod]

Notice the rim after it came off and hit the back of the suv, it has almost ALL of its offset to the rear. Meaning that in order for it to stick out that much on that truck, required a HUGE amount of wheel spacer. Absolute negligence by whoever installed that stupid looking garbage

Yet they do it every single day.

 

[72bluNblu]

I love it, all the spacer haters out before they even know what happened, even though they'll never know for sure.

First, no one even knows if there's spacers on that truck. Having the wheels hanging out like that could be entirely because of the backspace on the rim, with no spacers needed at all. Plenty of guys on this very forum have the wheels sticking way out of their wheel wells without any spacers, just a negative offset rim.

Second, the rotor is definitely still attached to the wheel. So, even if there were spacers on the truck, the hub or knuckle is what failed. And of course everyone can speculate as to what it was that caused that failure. Maybe it was having oversized tires sticking way out from the body and suspension of the truck, but that's an issue with the wheel fitment. And that would be an issue whether there's a spacer in there or not. The spacer, if present at all, didn't fail. And if it was the wheel location that caused the failure, it would have been the same if a spacer used to put the wheel out there, or if the backspace of the wheel itself put it out there.

And of course, not knowing ANY of the back story on that truck, there's nothing to say the wheel location caused the failure at all. Could have been plain old lack of maintenance, or abuse, or whatever.

 

[72bluNblu]

Notice the rim after it came off and hit the back of the suv, it has almost ALL of its offset to the rear. Meaning that in order for it to stick out that much on that truck, required a HUGE amount of wheel spacer. Absolute negligence by whoever installed that stupid looking garbage

No sir, that is a highly negative offset wheel. If a large spacer was needed, you'd see the spokes all the way at the outside of the wheel. These are both from the outside of the wheel (it flips to show the rotor), you can see there's a large lip/dish on the rim to the outside and the spokes are well back into the rim. If there are spacers on that wheel, they're not massive by any means. The wheel position was mostly (entirely?) from the specs on the wheel itself.

 

[92b]

Seems like anytime an accident happens there are some who blame the cause of the accident as the person being a moron, idiot or stupid. I think it gives them some comfort to believe that something like this could never happen to them because they are neither a moron, idiot or stupid.

 

[Killer6]

Seems like anytime an accident happens there are some who blame the cause of the accident as the person being a moron, idiot or stupid. I think it gives them some comfort to believe that something like this could never happen to them because they are neither a moron, idiot or stupid.

If You watch that & are keen, You can observe that that truck is not "steady", it's visably apparent as the driver is switching lanes it's movements are less than precise. It's not clear why, & the driver "may or may not" have known there was a mechanical issue, it "might" have felt like a tire issue to them. *EDIT*Either it's a 2WD Tonka-Toy or the nut came off & it separated & left the stub behind on it's departure. It's hard to believe the stub-shaft sheared off, but if the bearing was running hot before seizing, it's a faarrrr outside possibility?? It's also unlikely(yet possible) the hub was changed, & the cap-screws were started but never torqued & the whole thing left, but a 4×4 would have an outer CV still attached.* Vid is a bit fuzzy, & no obvious signs of smoke before the fail, but I'll watch it again.
Putting these stupid rollerskate packages together IS dumbassness, I've been workin' on 'em & dealin' with 'em for pushin' 40yrs. now, hasn't gotten any smarter or wiser in that time.

 

[diymirage]

If You watch that & are keen, You can observe that that truck is not "steady", it's visably apparent as the driver is switching lanes it's movements are less than precise. It's not clear why, & the driver "may or may not" have known there was a mechanical issue, it "might" have felt like a tire issue to them.

i can remember 3 instances since the turn of the year where i pointed out to a driver (on the same road as me) that they were running at least one tire down low enough it was a bout to come of the rim

guess what?

none of em had a clue

i have also once felt the deathwobble myself
i had a 80s bronco and i was doing about 50 when it started
as soon as it did, i slowed down and before i could pull over on the shoulder my left rear wheel came passing me by
(turned out the lugnuts had worked themselves loose)

 

[missing linc]

I lost a left rear wheel at about 70 mph years ago on a two lane road. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic at the time, and I was able to keep the car in my lane and get stopped fairly quickly. Did quite a number on my 1/4 panel and I never found the wheel, it went deep into the bush I guess. Turned out that the lug nuts were not tight, two studs were stripped and the other 3 were ok.

 

[sireland67]

I lost a rear wheel on a Jeep one time, in the middle of a turn, left rear.
Looked in horror as a car topped the top of the hill comming at me.
Thank God it was a 2 lane road, the tire rolled in the ditch, I just drove the jeep off the road.
I felt the tire start to shake, and bam it was gone 36" swamper.

 

[92b]

Wow. Three examples of wheels comming off vehicles from members. Sounds like they are all grateful no one else was involved. Imagine the verbal beating they would get here if it would have caused the melee in that video.

 

[Killer6]

Wow. Three examples of wheels comming off vehicles from members. Sounds like they are all grateful no one else was involved. Imagine the verbal beating they would get here if it would have caused the melee in that video.

Oh take the "1at Me 3 at Thee" psychology lecture somewhere else Dude, I personally don't believe the driver of the truck had no clue something was wrong, not for a second. I think like a lot of lazy, unconcerned dipshits they ignored it, never thinking something like this would ever happen.

 

[Killer6]

I love it, all the spacer haters out before they even know what happened, even though they'll never know for sure.

First, no one even knows if there's spacers on that truck. Having the wheels hanging out like that could be entirely because of the backspace on the rim, with no spacers needed at all. Plenty of guys on this very forum have the wheels sticking way out of their wheel wells without any spacers, just a negative offset rim.

Second, the rotor is definitely still attached to the wheel. So, even if there were spacers on the truck, the hub or knuckle is what failed. And of course everyone can speculate as to what it was that caused that failure. Maybe it was having oversized tires sticking way out from the body and suspension of the truck, but that's an issue with the wheel fitment. And that would be an issue whether there's a spacer in there or not. The spacer, if present at all, didn't fail. And if it was the wheel location that caused the failure, it would have been the same if a spacer used to put the wheel out there, or if the backspace of the wheel itself put it out there.

And of course, not knowing ANY of the back story on that truck, there's nothing to say the wheel location caused the failure at all. Could have been plain old lack of maintenance, or abuse, or whatever.

View attachment 1716069681

What I can tell You is that like almost all modern hat-rotors, there's very little offset from the hub flange to the rotor surface, & that's a ton more than stock right there.
The method of achieving that amount of offset is irrelevant, the increase in load the bearing has to survive is going to be the same.
It's hard to see what's inside the rotor, but the fail-safe that's engineered into those hubs "should" prevent total separation if the bearing completely fails. So either the whole hub left the knuckle, heat & wear caused the false-stub(2WD)/outer CV stub to fail/break off, and had to shear&clear the caliper bolts&caliper.
Either way, that was a spectacular fail & bad timing for the Kia, I'm very glad they basically walked away from that one.

 

[92b]

Oh take the "1at Me 3 at Thee" psychology lecture somewhere else Dude, I personally don't believe the driver of the truck had no clue something was wrong, not for a second. I think like a lot of lazy, unconcerned dipshits they ignored it, never thinking something like this would ever happen.

People who have had a wheel fall off are probably just " Lazy, unconcerned dipshits".
I don't believe that.

 

[Killer6]

People who have had a wheel fall off are probably just " Lazy, unconcerned dipshits".
I don't believe that.

You must not know that many people...

 

[RustyRatRod]

I have no idea whether spacers were involved. I can tell you this. The way these guys now put these really offset wheels on to make them "illegally" stick out from the fenders is likely one cause of this. It puts an uneven load on the wheel bearings and leads to premature failure. I believe I am correct in saying it is illegal in all 50 states to have tires that protrude past the fenders.

 

[RustyRatRod]

...and having said all that, I don't like spacers, but I do realize there are some moderns ones that do the job. But just like aftermarket.....or really any wheels, their attaching fasteners should be checked for proper torque regularly.

 

[Killer6]

I have no idea whether spacers were involved. I can tell you this. The way these guys now put these really offset wheels on to make them "illegally" stick out from the fenders is likely one cause of this. It puts an uneven load on the wheel bearings and leads to premature failure. I believe I am correct in saying it is illegal in all 50 states to have tires that protrude past the fenders.

Back in the '80's when the Toyota Tonka-Toy was the "thing"(made more popular by the Dream Truck in 'Back to the Future'), I was on the way to tech school on the parkway when traffic backed up earlier than usual, there was said Toy on it's side with the top facing the traffic behind. There was a nice big black tire track right up the side of the Jersey Barrier, lol. May have got pinched by a rig moving over or whatnot, but I have a feeling they reconsidered the wheel&tire package after that adventure.

 

[92b]

You must not know that many people...

I try to look for the good in people first and I try not to view the world through dip **** colored glasses. I say this as a self-admitted moron.

 

[Killer6]

I try to look for the good in people first and I try not to view the world through dip **** colored glasses. I say this as a self-admitted moron.

I'm not "looking" for bad, but working in 3 dealerships, & a private shop for a total of 36+yrs I've seen the type too many times to count. Just browse the "Just Rolled In" vids & others like them on YT, it's scarier than You think, & more common than most would believe.

 

[missing linc]

I'm not "looking" for bad, but working in 3 dealerships, & a private shop for a total of 36+yrs I've seen the type too many times to count. Just browse the "Just Rolled In" vids & others like them on YT, it's scarier than You think, & more common than most would believe.

Amazing how many times on "Just Rolled In", the customer declines all repairs on their rolling death trap.

 

[Killer6]

Amazing how many times on "Just Rolled In", the customer declines all repairs on their rolling death trap.

No lie. I had a dude come in with a **** brake pedal, no fluid, so I topped it off & did a quick walk around. I could see fluid on the Dr. Rr. backing plate, so I threw a jack under the pinch weld & got it up, yanked the wheel & drum. Wheel cyl. hemmorage of course, (common on this GM model), so I got Him a quick(&reasonable) quote. "HOW MUCH!?, NOPE, PUT IT BACK TOGETHER!!"
I did so & He asked how much He owed, I quickly said "We're good". He backed up & left, & soon as He was out of sight I turned to everbody in the shop & said "that Dude was never F'n here, got it?"

 

[missing linc]

No lie. I had a dude come in with a **** brake pedal, no fluid, so I topped it off & did a quick walk around. I could see fluid on the Dr. Rr. backing plate, so I threw a jack under the pinch weld & got it up, yanked the wheel & drum. Wheel cyl. hemmorage of course, (common on this GM model), so I got Him a quick(&reasonable) quote. "HOW MUCH!?, NOPE, PUT IT BACK TOGETHER!!"
I did so & He asked how much He owed, I quickly said "We're good". He backed up & left, & soon as He was out of sight I turned to everbody in the shop & said "that Dude was never F'n here, got it?"

I had more than enough incidents just like that when I worked in the automotive field. Our response was usually about the same as yours. "Take your car and F off!"
There was another shop half a mile down the road from us that did piss poor work and charged outrageous prices. More than once a car came in to us that had just been there, and barely made it to our yard. We turned most of them away so we wouldn't have to correct their messes or be blamed for the shitty work they did.